Monday August 3, 2009 David W. Cromer

Theme: E Pluribus Unum

17A: Data set available to many: SHARED FILE

57A: Professionally managed investment type: MUTUAL FUND

9D: Property co-owner: JOINT TENANT

25D: Unifying objective: COMMON CAUSE

Argyle here.

Wish OUR (44D: Wilder's __ Town) were clued as "Sharing word". Would be a good tie-in answer.

Very little today that should cause trouble but then CRS (Can't Remember SH?T) can strike at any time. Our constructor today has puzzles for every day of the week. Very good.

Across:

1A: Pear variety: BOSC. From Wikipedia: The Beurré Bosc or Bosc is a cultivar of the European Pear (Pyrus communis) grown in California, Washington, and Oregon, Australia as well as in British Columbia and Europe, where it is sometimes called Kaiser.

Characteristic features are a long tapering neck and russeted skin. Its flesh is denser, crisper and smoother than that of the Williams or D'Anjou pear. It is called the "aristocrat of pears".

5A: Philbin's co-host: RIPA. Kelly RIPA. Regis Philbin is of Albanian root too, so is Alan Shepard, in addition Mother Teresa & John Belushi, whom PBJ-Chicago pointed out yesterday.

9A: Sharp punches: JABS.

13A: Rights org.: ACLU. American Civil Liberties Union.

14A: Broadcast booth sign: ON AIR.

16A: ESPN sportscaster Hershiser: OREL. At his peak in the 1980s, Orel Hershiser was at the top of the National League, the ace of a stacked Los Angeles Dodger rotation.

19A: Division word: INTO. And 42A: Math comparison: RATIO.

22A: Obama was in it until November 2008: SENATE.

24A: __set: construction toy: ERECTOR. from an earlier age.

26A: Dances in 3/4 time: WALTZES.

27A: Surgery ctrs.: ORS. Surgery centers-operating rooms. And 32A: Barn bundle: BALE. And 45A: Barnyard brooder: HEN. And 63A: Part to play: ROLE And 4D: Mangy mutt: CUR And 5A: Cowpokes' competitions: RODEOS. (Do you notice a sub-theme here? All alliterative clues!)

28A: Lindbergh, notably: PILOT. Also, from an earlier age.

29A: Mel, "The Velvet Fog": TORME. Vintage Torme.

33A: Vigorous spirit: ELAN.

37A: Japanese cartoon art genre: ANIME. "A Japanese style of motion-picture animation, characterized by highly stylized, colorful art, futuristic settings, violence, and sexuality." Based on the Random House Dictionary.

39A: Pointy-hatted garden statue: GNOME. Gotta have a picture!

40A: Taken-back auto: REPO. Origin: by shortening of repossess. Is forming a word by shortening the same as abbreviation? I think not.

41A: Thumbs-down reviews: PANS.

43A: Like the Vikings: NORSE. The ugly "troll" is of NORSE origin. And don't forget LEIF ("Sage of the Greenlanders" hero), son of Eric the Red.

46A: Treat for Fido: BISCUIT.

49A: Wetlands growth: CATTAIL. cattails

53A: Many vows are taken at them: ALTARS.

60A: Gets grayer, usually: AGES.

61A: Periods, in telegrams: STOPS.

62A: Big Apple theater award: OBIE. One of a group of awards given annually, by New York City's The Village Voice newspaper for achievement in the off-Broadway theater. Based on the Random House Dictionary

65A: D.C. lobbying orgs.: PACS. Political Action Committee.

Down:

2D: Autumn leaf color: OCHER. Not heard very often: "My, what lovely ocher leaves." Also spelled as OCHRE.

6D: Reason out: INFER.

10D: Desi who married Lucille Ball: ARNAZ.

11D: Midler of 'The Rose": BETTE. The Rose - Bette Midler & Wynonna Judd.

18D: Serving after the salad: ENTREE.

23D: "Don't Bring Me Down" rock gp.: ELO. Electric Light Orchestra

26D: Loses crispness, as celery: WILTS.

28D: "The Age of Reason" author Thomas: PAINE. Quotation by Thomas Paine: "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be."

29D: Sea dog: TAR. Old sailor.

30D: White Monopoly bill: ONE. Before you ask what the other colors are...Monopoly money.

31D: __ cord: parachute activator: RIP.

35D: "__ seeing things?": AM I.

39D: Sister of Hansel: GRETEL. Hansel and GRETEL. Grimm tale.

41D: Light-refracting devices: PRISM. Probably the most famous prism

44D: Wilder's "__ Town": OUR. The play with the stage manager out front.

45D: Bother continually: HARASS.

46D: Kid-lit elephant: BABAR. Intro, extracted from the episode "The City Of Elephants".

47D: Volunteer's offer: I'LL GO.

48D: Pittsburgh product, historically: STEEL. East Coast gimme?

49D: Two-door car: COUPE.

50D: Caribbean island resort: ARUBA. Map Somebody said it wasn't that nice, but I'd like to find out for myself.

51D: Greek column style: IONIC. Hmm, the classic DIC (INOIC, Doric & Corinthian, thanks again, Kazie).

52D: Mine bonanzas: LODES.

58D: Beehive State native: UTE. Not capitalized, a utility vehicle; with a capital, a member of the American Indian people of Utah.

59D: Fancy dresser: FOP. Synonyms: dandy, coxcomb, swell, dude, Beau Brummel, beau, clotheshorse, fashion plate, macaroni, peacock, popinjay. Oscar Wilde was one vain FOP, wasn't he? He once said: "One should either be a work of Art, or wear a work of Art."

Answer grid.

Argyle

Sunday August 2, 2009 Nancy Salomon

Theme: At the Y (Letter Y's are added to familiar phrases)

23A: Conference call? MAN(Y)-TO- MAN(Y) CHAT

36A: Skittish about almost everything?: WORLD WAR(Y)

49A: Cheer from an ass?: SUPPORT BRA(Y)

81A: Successful cabbies?: BUS(Y) DRIVERS

95A: Thick stick-in-the-mud?: DENSE FOG(Y)

114A: Overt play for sympathy?: OPEN-PIT(Y) MINING

16D: Hamlet's cry after finding a gem?: AY, THERE'S THE RUB(Y)

43D: Editor's mixed bag?: GOOD COP(Y) BAD COP(Y)

The Y at the theme title "At the Y" refers to YMCA, correct?

I am not familiar with the communication term MANY-TO-MANY. "To sleep: perchance to dream: Ay, there's the rub" is from Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech. SUPPORT BRAY is so funny.

Smooth puzzle from Nancy Salomon. If there were a Crossword Hall of Fame, she should be among the first to be inducted.

I filled in lots of blanks on my first pass. Still had to cheat though. Disliked the clue for WOE IS ME (21A: Melodramatic cry) because MELO is the answer for 48A: Dramatic beginning.

Across:

1A: Downfall: DEMISE

7A: Religion founded in the Punjab: SIKHISM. SIKH is Sanskrit for "disciple".

14A: Valuable strings: AMATIS. Wrote down STRADS first. It fit well with SEC, my initial answer for the intersecting 14D: Wall Street org. (ASE).

20A: undermined: ERODED

22A: Agree to unit: SAY "I DO"

26A: Off the shelf: SOLD

27A: Followers of zetas: ETAS. Greek has 24 letters.

30A: Severe spasm: THROE

31A: Stud site: EAR LOBE. Stud earrings.

33A: Joe's con man buddy in "Midnight Cowboy": RATSO. Played by Dustin Hoffman.

34A: Loads: REAMS. Did anyone try SCADS first?

35A: Corp alias: DBA (Doing Business As)

40A: Ice cream thickener: AGAR. Made of seaweed.

42A: Makes true: ALIGNS. "True" here means "on target".

44A: Censor's deletion: OATH

45A: Secrecy metaphors: CLOSETS. My first thought is THE ROSE. Rose does denote secrecy, you know, sub rosa.

53A: Math ration: SINE

55A: Gathering clouds and such: OMENS. Chinese view crow as an OMEN of death.

57A: State stat: AREA

58A: Team with a star logo: ASTROS. Houston ASTROS.

62A: Charlie Brown's creator: SCHULZ. Charles SCHULZ was born and grew up here in Minnesota.

64A: Much of Egypt: SAHARA. SAHARA is just Arab for "desert".

65A: "Odyssey" enchantress: CIRCE. Wanted SIREN again. CIRCE turned Odysseus' crew into swine.

66A: Wavy lines, in comics: ODOR

69A: Skelton's Kadiddlehopper: CLEM. I can never remember this name.

70A: Fast times?: LENTS. Without the question mark, the clue is valid too.

71A: Lazy: OTIOSE. New word to me.

73A: Bumps up: RAISES

75A: Wagner works: OPERAS

77A: Get going: PROPEL

78A: Weapon with a bell guard: EPEE. I don't know what a bell guard is.

79A: SeaWorld star: SHAMU. Orca sounds deadly, doesn't it?

80A: Hard to grasp: EELY

85A: Chum, e.g.: BAIT. I kept thinking of "buddy" chum.

89A: Collectors' targets: DEBTORS. Was in the hobby "collector" direction. I am very into bobbleheads now.

92A: Atlanta suburb: SMYRNA. No idea. Here is a map.

94A: Former Sony brand: AIWA. Oh, I was not aware that Sony has killed the AIWA brand. Sony only acquired AIWA in 2002.

98A: Relocation: Abbr.: TRF (Transfer). Not a familiar abbr. to me.

99A: Feature of Goliath, but not giants: HARD G. My favorite clue. Very nice wordplay.

102A: Western star with a whip: LA RUE (Lash). He got his name Lash because of his exceptional skill with bullwhip.

104A: Scorecard listings: ROSTERS

106A: Period of note: EPOCH

107A: Layered do: SHAG. Like Farrah Fawcett's hair.

108A: Cameo shape: OVAL

111A: Polo of "Meet the Fockers": TERI. Dustin Hoffman was in "Meet the Fockers" too.

112A: Guarded bars: INGOTS. Thought of the prison bars.

118A: Passed gradually: SEEPED

119A: Soft, in a way: LENIENT

120A: Cooling-off period?: ICE AGE

121A: Dionysian attendants: SATYRS. They are part man, part goat, constantly drinking and chasing the nymphs. See this SATYR balancing a wine cup on his erect MOREL.

122A: City on the Elbe: DRESDEN. Famous for its fine china.

123A: Cordage fibers: ISTLES. This word used to stump me.

Down:

1D: DNC part: Abbr.: DEM. DNA is Democratic National Committee.

2D: Subject to being wiped out: ERASABLE

3D: Way around Disneyland: MONORAIL. No idea. Have never been to Disneyland.

4D: Pastoral piece: IDYLL

5D: Put on the table: SET DOWN

6D: Shogun's capital: EDO. The name became Tokyo in 1868. Shogun is literally "general".

7D: Police crisis acronym: SWAT

8D: Isle of Mull neighbor: IONA. See this map. I've never heard of Isle of Mull.

10D: Sot's syllable: HIC. Hiccup.

11D: 1987 Beatty bomb: ISHTAR. Funny, Dustin Hoffman is in this movie too. ISHTAR is also the Babylonian/Assyrian goddess of love/fertility. Counterpart to the Phoenician Astarte.

12D: Wiseacre: SMARTY. Wonder how SMARTY Jones is doing.

15D: Chanted words: MANTRAS

18D: "Jump the Shark," e.g.: IDIOM. "Jump the Shark" is derived from the scene in "Happy Days" when the Fonz water skied over a shark. The phrase refers to a point where TV shows has run out of ideas and resorts to stunts to retain viewer interest. Of course, things all go downhill from there.

19D: Pump bottoms: SOLES

24D: Dutch artist Jan van der __ van Delft: MEER. I only know him as Jan Vermeer. "Van" means "from" or "of" in Dutch. He was born and buried in Delft. Probably most famous for "The Milkmaid" and "The Girl with the Pearl Earring", the latter inspired the Scarlett Johansson movie with the same title.

29D: Eucalyptus muncher: KOALA

31D: Cheese tray choice: EDAM. Dutch cheese.

33D: Gung-ho: RAH RAH

37D: Cuts: LOPS

38D: Skip along the water: DAP. This has become a gimme as well.

39D: Intl. commerce group since 1995: WTO (World Trade Organization). Replaced GATT (General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade).

41D: some El Prado works: GOYAS. Both his "The Naked Maja" and "The Clothed Maja" are in El Prado.

45D: Hot item: CRAZE

46D: King Zog's capital: TIRANA. Capital of Albania. I did not know who King Zog is.

47D: Bar belts: SNORTS. Stumped. Both "belt" and "snort" are slang for "a drink of liquor, esp when swallowed in one gulp" according to dictionary.

50D: Second commandment preposition: UNTO.

51D: Fighting ender: TRUCE. Korean War simply ended with a TRUCE, not a peace treaty.

52D: Nautical time units: BELLS. The half-hour units. Navy's traditional timekeeping system.

54D: Those, in Tijuana: ESAS. ESOS too.

56D: Attorney general under Reagan: MEESE (Ed).

59D: Capital north of Sacramento: SALEM

60D: Like British bishop: MITRED. British spelling of miter, the traditional, ceremonial head-dress of bishop.

61D: Ray's opponent: ORIOLE. Both belong to American League East Division.

62D: All lathered up: SOAPY

63D: Turned on the waterworks: CRIED

65D: Handle things: COPE. Thought of DEAL first.

67D: Become decent: DRESS. OK, #7 definition of "decent" according to Dictionary.com: "wearing enough clothing to appear in public".

69D: Former "Last Comic Standing" host Jay: MOHR. Stumped. But when I googled his name, I realized he was the nice guy Nick in Jennifer Aniston "Picture Perfect".

72D: Jostle: ELBOW

74D: Unruffled: SERENE. Like Mona Lisa's smile.

76D: Turn a corner, in Monopoly: PASS GO. No idea. Know nothing about Monopoly.

79D: Fitness magazine: SELF. Eva Longoria is very pretty, even without make-up.

82D: Range mostly in Russia: URALS

83D: OR hookups: IVS. Reminds me of a clever clue for STU (RV hookups).

84D: Go head to head: VIE

86D: Main street: ARTERIAL

87D: Encroach (upon): INFRINGE

90D: More like best buds: TIGHTER. The clue just does not feel natural to me.

93D: Occult figures: MYSTICS

95D: Cloth dealer, in Cambridge: DRAPER. British for dealer in cloth/clothing/dry goods. What do we call "Cloth dealer" in America ?

96D: Debs in politics: EUGENE. Unknown figure to me. Wikipedia says he was one of the founding members of the International Labor Union.

97D: Air France destination: ORLY. Main airport of Paris prior to Charles de Gaulle.

99D: 1960 Olympic figure skating gold medalist Carol: HEISS. Nope. She looks so cheerful.

100D: Sleep disturbance: APNEA

101D: Creator of an immortal 1852 lexicon: ROGET. Oh, the man with many words. I did not know ROGET's Thesaurus was published in 1852.

108D: Page with essays: OP-ED. OP(posite)- ED(itorial).

110D: Ltrs. in a letter: ATTN

113D: Tom Hayden's '60s org.: SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)

116D: Early 11th century year: MII. 1002.

117D: Some appliances: GES. Hey, finally Goldman Sachs upgraded GE.

Answer grid.

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

C.C.